The hatch is one of those things that I find dubious... I don't see it as proper or improper, honestly. The films don't clarify how a hatch opens on the thing, and the models don't give it away either when you see them up close. Even EU seems to imply different ways of opening for the hatch so it's anyone's guess. I really don't understand why Hasbro did that little update then.

If I can find (I'd like 2) the new TIE I'll try picking it up... I'd love a couple for flanking a (hopefully) grey Vader's TIE down the road at some point.

It just strikes me as really odd... I don't get why Hasbro put forth the effort on it when there's nothing to imply what they have is "inaccurate"... The split cannopy actually makes more sense from an "ejection" standpoint...

Hasbro's weird though, as that had to require tooling costs... I don't get what their thinking was on it though. Why bother, ya know?

It starts with our strategy of wanting to get an everyday priced $20 TIE fighter out there for kids and collectors in our Starfighter Vehicle Asst. We could have taken the existing version, but we wanted to make it new, rather than a straight repack. In addition to deco, we wanted to affect another aesthetic change to the hatch change. We didn't have a lot of tooling dollars to use (we were saving those for the new 2007 vehicles) but we could afford to update the hatch. This was a nice aesthetic change that we were able to execute.

In other words, "we knew suckers like Jeff wouldn't buy it if it was just another TIE repaint, so we re-tooled the hatch to make sure that folks like him pony up the cash for one since it's technically new".

I'm still undecided on the new TIE(s) that are coming out. I wanted to pick up the larger winged version at Target last year, but just couldn't justify the price at the time. This year, the timing isn't much better, so I'm not sure. I'd like to get all of the OT ships (eventually), but I'm wondering if the "larger wings" are worth $45 to me or not. I have the regular, earlier version (KB Toys Exc. from a couple years back I believe) Although it is not scaled correctly, the upcoming white TIE is more of a price range I can handle at $20. For those of you that have it, do you feel the larger wings are "worth" the purchase?

I had one and sold it - it just wasn't worth paying 2X what a regular TIE goes for. That and I wasn't happy with the "sloppiness" of the attachment method used for the wings.

Thanks, that is exactly the type of advice I'm looking for. I'm trying to decide if its really worth $45 to me to have larger wings. Sure, its more accurate, and I'd like to have it - just not at that price necessarily. Heck, I could pick up a couple of the "regular" version and have a small fleet for the price I'd pay for the wings. I'll have to think about it I guess, but with space dwindling and trying to reign in spending, I have to think of what's really worth it at this point.

I felt that the larger wings were worth the $30 purchase, but not for $45 - that's just plain overkill. I really like the larger winged version as it really made the older ties look like the "toys" they are. I do think that $30 was a fair price for this vehicle though the saggy wings really detract from the overall look.

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